Satisfying Your Gaming Addiction

5 Things Microsoft Should Reveal at Their Conference

Ever since the first news regarding Sony’s conference on February 20th broke out, everyone speculated that the company would announce their next generation console. They indeed announced it, but the conference also held many surprises: from new titles like inFAMOUS: Second Son or Killzone: Shadow Fall, to the new DualShock 4 controller, or to how accessible the new PlayStation is for developing, Sony had one of its best conferences in recent memory. So what about Microsoft?

Here are 5 things Microsoft should do, in order to steal some of that hype from Sony’s PlayStation 4:

Reveal Lots of 1st Party Titles – This goes without saying, and should be the most important thing for Microsoft right now. Sony has loads of great first party franchises like inFAMOUS, Killzone, Uncharted, Little Big Planet, God of War, and many many more other titles. Microsoft simply cannot rely only on the next Gears of War or Forza to attract gamers, and the next Halo would be too early to announce, seeing as Halo 4 only came out like 4 months ago. Let’s see some new IPs, or, at the very least, bring back some franchises which were great at first, but didn’t get remarkably better, like Fable or Crackdown. Maybe Alan Wake 2? It would certainly start the conference with a bang.

We need a new plan…

Rethink Kinect- We’ve seen it first hand: there simply isn’t any Kinect-only game, which would make gamers run out and buy the respective motion sensor input. Sure, children and grandparents might enjoy a round of Kinectimals 2, or Kinect Adventures 2, but the core gamers don’t care for these kind of gimmicks. In order to still make Kinect relevant, Microsoft should demonstrate first hand to other developers how the Kinect might enhance a game, but it would have to be something more that shouting – “RELOAD” – to the TV, or weaving your hands and potentially looking like you’re having a seizure. The allegedly Kinect 2.0 seems to be more accurate than the first, so let’s see that power be put to more innovative purposes.

Is this the future? Not really…

Reveal the Price Tag – Sony will never be forgotten for how expensive the company had priced the PS3 when it came out, and as a result, some people might still be holding back on whether they should buy a PS4 until Sony reveals the price tag, and that is almost guaranteed to happen at E3. So how about Microsoft revealing their next generation console’s price earlier? I seriously doubt they would price it higher than anything Sony may come up with, and don’t forget that MS might also reveal a two years contract-deal, similarly to the one they have now for the Xbox 360.

Why not?

Reveal the Hardware – Even if Sony had some great game demos at their conference, they didn’t actually reveal the PS4 hardware (besides the controller), so some might think that the demos shown wouldn’t reflect the actual quality gamers would receive when the games come out. Microsoft would benefit greatly if it would show the complete hardware, with live demos, and maybe even let people there try the games for themselves.

Close Enough…

Reveal the Launch Date – Yes, Sony announced the PS4 earlier than Microsoft would announce the next Xbox, but how about Microsoft lying its cards on the table, and even announce a release date? With the PlayStation 4 targeting a holiday release date, Microsoft might once again try and get its console earlier that Sony’s (albeit, not that earlier as the Xbox 360 was compared to the PS3), and reveal a fall date; sometimes between September and November, just in time for the next Call of Duty, or any other big budget title.

I realise that some of these things might only be revealed at E3, but if any of these points would be checked by Microsoft at their conference, the hype train would also turn towards them.

Vlad Pintea is a senior editor of news and features here at Analog Addiction, and sometimes he even reviews games.You can contact him via e-mail at vlad94pintea@yahoo.com or vlad94pintea@gmail.com, My IGN, on Skype, Steam (all at the same name: vlad94pintea) or Facebook (Vlad Pintea). Have a good day, and remember: stay calm and keep on gaming!

I don’t think Microsoft can out do Sony conference in terms of what I, the core gamer was looking for. In recent years Xbox has moved further and further away from being a hardcore gaming system and has become more a casual media center, while Sony has really embraced the opposite. (just look at their conference and Dualshock 4 it reaks of pleasing the gamer) I do think Microsoft will do fine, but hardcore audience will probably flock towards the ps4

I can’t really support Microsoft this next generation because while Sony is more interested in the hardcore gamer, Microsoft has more interest in casual gaming, Kinect and Xbox becoming an entertainment center. Its just kind of lame.

Sadly it isn’t :( but yeah, GAMEZ GAMEZ GAMEZ, that’s what matters and I’m afraid Microsoft will not focus on that… but what do I care? Sony cares and props to them! Look at me, the console isn’t out and I’m already a fanboy…